The new management of Northern Rock has launched an investigation into whether there are grounds for bringing legal action against the board who presided over the bank’s near collapse last September.

Ron Sandler, the executive chairman, told the Financial Times that he and Northern Rock’s lawyers, Freshfields, were conducting a review of the conduct of the previous board to see if action should be taken against executives including Adam Applegarth, the former chief executive widely seen as a key architect of the bank’s failed strategy.